2018 has been a fantastic year here at Blake, and despite the various challenges we have had to face, we have achieved so much! Find out more about what 2018 has involved for us...

2018 Reflections…

Here are some of the reflections from 2018 , as covered by Michael Barter, CEO:

'Many years ago when ‘one’ was expressing frustration that the ‘boat’ wasn’t going fast enough, one of my staff spoke to me and said ‘remember it’s not the crop that is being reaped that counts it’s the seeds that are being sown’ ….wise words from a young person. Whilst I agree we have had a successful year and yes it was a record in revenue I would say that the ‘boat’ needs to go faster. However when I reflect on the seeds that have been sown in 2018 it has laid the basis for the crop to be reaped over the next few years.

Let’s discuss some of the ‘seeds sown’ ;

• We opened Blake USA, setting up a warehouse, stock and a sales office, and trading commenced in July.

• We opened more Hubs of Excellence, bringing up the number of locations to 6 in the UK

• We invested in staff, employing an additional 20 people to strengthen the team and bring new expertise to our ever diversifying portfolio of services and stock

• We invested £2.7million in new equipment and a new production factory, massively increasing our envelope manufacturing capabilities

• We invested in multilingual staff to cater for our growing overseas business.

We continued to build on the ‘past’ , ‘present’ successes of our Hubs of Excellence located around the UK and this has given us renewed enthusiasm to continue this programme, knowing that it will translate into ‘future ‘success.

We are mindful of clouds gathering on the horizon with the uncertainty of BREXIT however at Blake we don’t just put our heads ‘under the covers’ hoping that it will go away , we plan. It will come as no surprise that several of the ‘seeds’ sown are to mitigate any damage that ‘bad deal’ or ‘no deal’ BREXIT could bring. Every business needs to know where it is going and the staff need the confidence that the leaders have a vision and in the case of Blake we have a clear vision and strategy.